ManageEngine Log360 is a unified SIEM solution designed to enhance your enterprise security posture and streamline log management. It collects, parses, analyzes, and archives logs from diverse sources, including Windows Firewall, to deliver real-time threat visibility and actionable insights.
Whether it’s monitoring blocked connections, policy changes, or unauthorized traffic, Log360 ensures deep visibility into Windows Firewall activity for proactive threat detection and regulatory compliance.
How Log360 ingests and processes Windows Firewall logs
Log360 retrieves Windows Firewall logs from target systems using agent-based or agentless log collection methods. The firewall log files—typically stored in pfirewall.log—are parsed and normalized for analysis.
Once Windows Firewall logging is activated on endpoints, Log360 automatically collects these detailed audit logs. The solution then ingests and analyzes these logs, providing comprehensive insights into allowed and blocked network traffic, security policy enforcement, and potential threats. This enables proactive monitoring, faster threat detection, and streamlined compliance reporting for Windows Firewall activities. Log360 then fetches these event logs for real-time monitoring and in-depth analysis.
Log types and monitoring focus areas
Log360 processes essential Windows Firewall events to support network defense and compliance, providing detailed connection and activity insights, including:
- Connection details: Analyzes allowed or blocked inbound and outbound traffic based on IP, port, and protocol.
- Rule changes: Tracks additions, deletions, or modifications to firewall rules and settings.
- Policy enforcement: Monitors enforcement actions taken on policy violations.
- Interface monitoring: Observes activity on specific network interfaces or profiles.
- Packet drops: Identifies dropped packets due to misconfiguration or suspicious activity.
Events Log360 closely monitors in Windows Firewall
Based on the available reports, Log360 closely monitors the following events related to Windows Firewall:
- Windows Firewall Rule Added: Tracks the creation of new firewall rules, which can indicate legitimate configuration changes or potential unauthorized activity.
- Windows Firewall Rule Modified: Monitors alterations to existing firewall rules, crucial for detecting tampering or policy violations.
- Windows Firewall Rule Deleted: Identifies the removal of firewall rules, which could impact network security and access.
- Windows Firewall Settings Restored: Alerts to instances where firewall settings are reverted, potentially indicating a recovery operation or an attempt to bypass security.
- Windows Firewall Settings Changed: General changes to firewall configurations beyond individual rule modifications, providing a broader view of security posture adjustments.
- Windows Firewall Group Policy Changes: Tracks modifications to firewall settings pushed via Group Policy, essential for enterprise environments.
- Firewall Spoof Attack: Detects attempts to spoof network addresses to bypass firewall rules.
- Firewall Internet Protocol half-scan attack: Identifies network scanning attempts that use half-open TCP connections.
- Firewall Flood Attack: Monitors for high volumes of traffic designed to overwhelm the firewall.
- Firewall Ping of Death Attack: Detects oversized or malformed ICMP packets designed to crash or destabilize the firewall.
- Firewall SYN Attack: Identifies denial-of-service attacks that exploit the TCP handshake process.
Core benefits of Windows Firewall integration with Log360
- Unified log visibility: Centralize monitoring of Windows Firewall alongside other critical systems like Windows servers, Linux, network devices, and cloud infrastructure.
- Real-time alerts and detection: Detect anomalies, insider threats, and policy violations as they occur using correlation rules and behavior analytics tailored for firewall events.
- Simplified compliance: Generate audit-ready reports for mandates such as the PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX, and the GDPR using prebuilt templates that include firewall activity.
- Faster forensics: Conduct rapid root cause investigations with powerful search, drill-down, and contextual log views specific to firewall events.
Tackling Windows Firewall security and audit challenges
| Challenges |
Solution offered by Log360 |
| Gaining visibility into network traffic |
Monitors all inbound and outbound connection attempts, both allowed and blocked. |
| Auditing firewall rule changes |
Tracks all modifications to firewall rules and security settings in real time. |
| Detecting suspicious network activity |
Uses correlation rules and UEBA to identify anomalous connection patterns and threats. |
| Meeting compliance demands |
Provides automated, customizable reports mapped to regulatory frameworks. |
Why Windows Firewall monitoring is better with Log360
- Correlated threat detection: Combine Windows Firewall logs with system, application, and cloud activity for multi-layered analysis.
- UEBA integration: Detect abnormal behavior like sudden traffic surges or policy violations using user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA).
- Threat feed enrichment: Match outbound or inbound IP traffic against global threat intelligence for faster risk detection.
- Single-pane visibility: Access real-time dashboards, alerts, and drill-downs from a unified console, enabling rapid incident triage and response.
Eliminate blind spots in your network perimeter. Get complete visibility into traffic blocks, connection attempts, and policy changes from a single, intuitive console.
Discover how Log360's Windows Firewall auditing and monitoring capabilities can safeguard your network security.
